You should be able to find 18 inch granite tiles at the major suppliers. But I'm thinking that my next table will be granite slab with a cut-out for a new medium BGE. The slab material really isn’t all that expensive. It’s the edge-work that drives up the cost. To get around that, you can frame up your table surface ½ inch wider and ½ inch longer than your slab piece. That’ll leave you a ¼ inch grout line all the way around the perimeter once you trim out. These pics (if I can make it work) of my first table kind-of shows the idea only with tile (since I’m a cheap bastard and these floor tiles are $1.50 a piece). I had decided that my XL would take up too much table space so just went with a full table and no cut-out. The basics of the table design are of course from the wise and noble Naked Whiz. The biggest challenge on the new granite table will be the round cut-out. I’ll probably pony up to get that done. Straight cuts are fairly easy with a diamond blade and a worm drive Skil saw. BTW, if you go with tile, choose porcelain over ceramic as it will hold up better to freezing.

Don't feel bad...I was eyeing some 13" (33 cm) tile for my upcoming table project. It was a bit more than $1.50 per, but not that much. It was ceramic, however...I might need to reconsider based on what you said about freeze resistance.

Yeah, I've seen the 18" (45 cm) granite, too, but can't make that work unless I make the table >36" deep, too deep to work on, really. I might head back to my granite guy to see what a 2 cm slab would cost me and just bite the bullet.

Scubadog - Why not make the table a little smaller than the granite slab to avoid the edge work and grouting? Much easier to keep clean if it is just a single piece of rock with a hole in it. The piece I had was a freebie but wasn't wide enough for an XL and I would have probably messed up trying to cut a hole in it. But if someone was buying one with a hole, for a few xtra bucks I suspect you could get it wide enough so frame work and grout wouldn't be required - just two centavos.